The Ultimate Fighter 16: Team Carwin vs. Team Nelson season premier TV ratings are in, notching this season’s first episode at 947,000 viewers on FX.

MMAWeekly.com confirmed the ratings with industry sources.

Friday night’s episode marked the lowest premiere in TUF history.

TUF 16’s first episode saw the series return to its pre-recorded format following last season’s jive-live experiment. TUF Live premiered to an initial audience of 1.3 million on FX, but averaged out to slightly more than 1 million viewers per episode over the course of the season.

Friday’s two-hour episode featured 32 welterweight fighters trying to make their way into the fighter house. Sixteen fighters moved on, with coaches Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson each selecting eight of the victors.

Exactly! Shut up and let Weidman fight the fight that’s in front of him (which is actually a deserving matchup) Honestly it’s these MMA sites fault for producing these Weidman hypemen. The sites can’t have an article with Weidman in it without mentioning him as the number one contender

RubeKegal

Anderson, fight Weidman already!!!

phrankthetank

While I agree that the laying an egg thing is getting old… If You think Weidman is far from being the no 1 contender… Who do you put in front of him?

triangle choke

Weidman may not be listed as the #1 contender, but he would whoop anyone out there that was ranked ahead of him. That’s for sure. As far as the comment about Anderson being scared, please don’t say stupid things that are completely false. He’s not the one ducking fights. Jon Jones was

bajafox

Ironically this is the first TUF premier I’ve seen in years

clizzark

You’re pretty damn dumb if you think Weidman is far from the #1 contender.

markronin

I don’t think it has anything to do with the quality of the show itself. I like the coaches and the fighters. Most of the fights were good.

Most ratings decline with the same show over time, people just naturally lose interest that’s why they cancel shows.